Benny Hill Sketch

[r1234]

My wife is a big Benny fan and we want to trace a sketch which might be called Benny's tours where Benny goes on holiday. He doesn't pay the small difference in price for premium service and gets the rough end of the deal such as tea out of the bucket on the plane etc. Can you tell me what episode this sketch was in and if we can get it on a dvd/video?

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by r1234

My wife is a big Benny fan and we want to trace a sketch which might be called Benny's tours where Benny goes on holiday. He doesn't pay the small difference in price for premium service and gets the rough end of the deal such as tea out of the bucket on the plane etc. Can you tell me what episode this sketch was in and if we can get it on a dvd/video?

Actually, it was little bald Jackie Wright who went on holiday the cheap way and got the short (ahem) end of the stick as you described; it originated from Mr. Hill's Feb. 22, 1973 special, which (depending on where you are) is on A&E Video's U.S. R.1 DVD set Complete & Unadulterated: The Naughty Early Years - Set 2: 1972-1974 and Network Video's U.K. R.2 DVD set The Benny Hill Annual: 1973. The former set refers to this sketch as "Jackie Wright's Holiday."

[Brian Damage]

There was a sketch that involved Benny I think called "John and Marsha." You never saw John or Marsha's face, but they kept saying "John" or "Marsha" for every scenario. WB, do you recognize this sketch?

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

There was a sketch that involved Benny I think called "John and Marsha." You never saw John or Marsha's face, but they kept saying "John" or "Marsha" for every scenario. WB, do you recognize this sketch?

That was essentially a video version of Stan Freberg's 1951 record "John and Marsha" (with music background from same in here); Mr. Hill's version was ostensibly an excerpt from a flick called "The Lovers" (Chopper Films), aired as part of a sketch from his Nov. 24, 1971 show called "The Movie Shakers: Mervyn Cruddy" (from which the famous Civil War-era "Home Is the Hero" routine with Benny as Gaylord, Jenny Lee-Wright as Miss Abigail, and Bob Todd as black servant Rufus, had also emanated). I remembered this "John and Marsha"-derivative sketch from the initial U.S. syndication package of 1979-87 (before it was reworked); I have to reckon Freberg objected to Benny's sketch for reasons probably having to do with copyright infringement or something, and had Thames' American syndicator take it out (mind you, I'm merely speculating; but then a Hill bio had noted that Benny was a master plagiarist, taking from anybody and everybody). But I vividly remember it just the same.

So did I vaguely remember the opening where the title design rotating on a turntable collapsed; the A&E DVD sets 1 through 3 brought back many memories of sketches or parts of sketches that were initially in syndication but cut from same after 1987.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by W.B.

That was essentially a video version of Stan Freberg's 1951 record "John and Marsha" (with music background from same in here); Mr. Hill's version was ostensibly an excerpt from a flick called "The Lovers" (Chopper Films), aired as part of a sketch from his Nov. 24, 1971 show called "The Movie Shakers: Mervyn Cruddy" (from which the famous Civil War-era "Home Is the Hero" routine with Benny as Gaylord, Jenny Lee-Wright as Miss Abigail, and Bob Todd as black servant Rufus, had also emanated). I remembered this "John and Marsha"-derivative sketch from the initial U.S. syndication package of 1979-87 (before it was reworked); I have to reckon Freberg objected to Benny's sketch for reasons probably having to do with copyright infringement or something, and had Thames' American syndicator take it out (mind you, I'm merely speculating; but then a Hill bio had noted that Benny was a master plagiarist, taking from anybody and everybody). But I vividly remember it just the same.

So did I vaguely remember the opening where the title design rotating on a turntable collapsed; the A&E DVD sets 1 through 3 brought back many memories of sketches or parts of sketches that were initially in syndication but cut from same after 1987.

Is that on any DVD I can purchase?

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

Is that on any DVD I can purchase?

Indeed, that Nov. 24, 1971 show is on A&E's Complete & Unadulterated: The Naughty Early Years - Set 1: 1969-1971, and Network Video's The Benny Hill Annual: 1971.